– Osho
Quotes –on Music

Whenever you know the
keys of how to open the doors of music you have opened the doors of
heaven also. The secret lies in the music. If there is a choice between
philosophy, religion, science and music; if you ask me to choose one,
after which all the remaining ones will disappear from the earth, I
will choose music. Because if there is music, religion will follow. It
cannot disappear.

If there is music how is it possible that religion can disappear? Music
will give such a mysterious feeling to everybody that people will start
thinking about what this mystery is. If music is, philosophy cannot
disappear; if music is, science cannot disappear; if music is,
literature cannot disappear.

But it is possible for philosophy to be there, and no music. If you
choose philosophy, then philosophy will be there, but there will be no
necessity for music to be there.

Music is the most primordial phenomenon because it is in nature, in the
breeze passing through the trees, in the birds singing -- you will
never find a bird being a philosopher but all birds are musicians. You
go and search -- you will not find a stream religious, but all streams
are musical. Go and ask these winds passing through the trees -- they
may not have ever heard about the Bible and Koran and Gita but they
know music. Music is involved in life itself. It is existential.

So if there is a choice for me to make I will choose music and drop all
else, because I know they will have to come back. Music is so vast that
it will create them all again. Music is heavenly.

~ from Tao, the Three Treasures, Vol 2, ch 10

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Let yourself be singing, let each fiber of your being be a part of the
universal dance. To me, this is the only revolution, the only
transformation which can bring this earth millions of joys.
[ . . . ] We can enter into an absolutely new era, where everybody is
joyful, loving, laughing. And everybody is carrying his own guitar --
no need to carry any crosses. I want to change every cross into a
guitar.

~ from Om Mani Padme Hum, ch 22

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Music comes closest to meditation. Music is a way towards meditation
and the most beautiful way. Meditation is the art of hearing the
soundless sound, the art of hearing the music of silence -- what the
Zen people call the sound of one hand clapping. When you are utterly
silent, not a single thought passes your mind, there is not even a
ripple of any feeling in your heart. Then you start, for the first
time, hearing silence.
Silence has a music of its own. It is not dead, it is very much alive,
it is tremendously alive. In fact, nothing is more alive than silence.
Music helps you from the outside to fall in tune with the inner. Music
is a device; it was invented by the buddhas.

~ from The Dhammapada, Vol 12, ch 4

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Meditation makes you aware of great music -- music without and music
within. It is there, but we are not alert, we are not awake, hence we
go on missing it, otherwise the whole existence is nothing but music.
That music is called 'god' by the mystics. God is not a person but the
ultimate harmony of existence; it is an orchestra. Everything is in
tune with everything else. The trees are in tune with the earth, the
earth is in tune with the wind, the wind is in tune with the sky, the
sky is in tune with the stars, and so on, so forth. There is no
hierarchy. Even the smallest blade of grass is as significant as the
biggest star.

~ from The Golden Wind, ch 2

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Music comes very close to the experience of godliness, because
godliness is the ultimate music of existence. It is another name for
the harmony that exists in the universe. What we call music is only a
tiny drop of it. But even though it is a tiny drop, it contains the
whole secret of the ocean. That's the attractiveness of music:

It releases meditation in you. It releases the imprisoned splendor. For
a moment all the walls of the prison disappear. For the moment, you are
transported into another world. For the moment, you transcend time and
space, you become infinite, unbounded. That is the beginning, the
beginning of a journey that never ends.

~ from No Man Is an Island, ch 16

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In silence we meet with existence -- words, languages, all create
barriers. And to be silent means to be a hollow bamboo. And the miracle
is, the moment you are a hollow bamboo, a music descends through you
which is not your own. It comes through you; it belongs to the whole.
Its beauty is tremendous, its ecstasy immeasurable [ . . . ] And to me,
that music is the ultimate experience, the last benediction, the
highest flowering of your consciousness.

~ from The Transmission of the Lamp, ch 26

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Music says nothing, it simply shows -- and that is the beauty of music.
You don't think whether music is true or untrue; that is irrelevant.
You simply listen to it. You become overwhelmed by it, you are
possessed by it. You fall in tune with it. You are transported to some
other realm, to some other vision of reality. You are not in the
mundane world. Music takes you to the higher peaks of life and
existence. It simply takes your hand and leads you, very politely, very
lovingly, into the mysterious.